The city of Brighton and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment deserve a prize. Both did exactly the right thing when they identified potential water contamination, confirmed the affected area, and issued an appropriate advisory all within a four-hour period. No one got sick. No schools, hospitals, nursing homes or recreational facilities were needlessly evacuated. Compare this to historical way we identified diseased water: The 1849 cholera epidemic in Julesberg was known only after a third of the settlers were already dead.

In the Brighton incident, the problem was identified quickly. It was E. coli, a common bacteria that could cause a disease if it were the wrong strain. Most E. coli are harmless, even beneficial to us. Some valuable health and pharmaceutical products are actually produced by genetically engineered E. coli bacteria.

E. coli are a lot like our favorite pet, the dog. There are so many varieties of dogs in our homes. Some of them are vicious and will bite you viciously, unprovoked. But it would unreasonable to shut down the city of Brighton after one dog was seen roaming around a housing subdivision.

Water managers, keep up the good work.

Warren T. Johnson, M.D., Brighton

This letter was published in the July 10 edition.

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